Hour #5
In this next session, I got to sit in while Clay met with a client who specializes in custom vehicle wrapping (like a vinyl wrap that gets put on over the paint on your car, ya know?)
This was another name that I was familiar with, so it was pretty cool to meet the man in charge.
This meeting was heavily themed around tracking results for some different keywords that the Thrivetime business coaching program was helping this client to rank for.
Like the others, this meeting ended up with some performance tweaks to be made to the client’s website that will nearly guarantee the client’s business to show up higher for the keywords that he wants to show up for in Google.
The Tip Top K9 Dog Training Interview
At the conclusion of the aforementioned meeting, we step out of The Box That Rocks and Clay begins starts for his next meeting. Between the meetings, we get a brief chance to discuss the prior meeting’s action points and the “how’s” and “why’s” of how those apply to growing a business into the best version of itself.
At this point, a couple in yellow shirts come in. They’re from a company that has gone through a tremendous amount of growth since starting to work with Clay and the crew: Tip Top K9.
Clay offered to let me bounce a few questions off of them after the meeting. Once they finished up, Tip Top K9 founder Ryan Wimpey came over to where I was waiting so I recorded a few questions that I asked him.
I’m going to transcribe this conversation to text, so I’ll keep it fairly abbreviated for the sake of our collective sanities.
Tyler (Just Tulsa): So, the first time I had ever heard of Tip Top K9 was back around September in one of the Thrivetime business conferences. How long have you all been working with the Thrivetime business coaching program?
Ryan (Tip Top K9): We’ve been working with them for 14 months or so now… Just a little bit over a year.
Tyler: And how did you all get hooked up with them?
Ryan: I heard about the Thrivetime business coaching program when I heard Clay on a podcast called the Profit First Podcast. I was like, “Aw, this is good!”, then I was like “Wait, this guy is from Tulsa?”
Tyler: How has your business changed since you first started working with Clay?
Ryan: It’s definitely gotten a lot better. We’ve got a lot of systems and marketing in place now. I don’t even worry about marketing anymore.
Tyler: So, does Thrivetime business coaching program handle that or do they just kind of get you all set up and let you all handle it from there?
Ryan: Nope — they handle all of our marketing.
Tyler: Really?
Ryan: Yeah. They do our YouTube ads, Facebook ads, re-targeting, and Google AdWords.
Tyler: And you feel like those marketing channels bring in a worthwhile amount of leads or business?
Ryan: Oh yes — last week was actually our biggest week in terms of leads, ever.
Tyler: Of those marketing channels that you guys use to get in front of your ideal customers, what does your “Three-Legged Marketing Stool” consist of? (Note: this “three-legged marketing stool refers to an approach that Clay and Dr. Zoellner teach to make sure the high quality leads come in and sustainably keep doing so.)
Ryan: Ours consists of our “Dream 100”, search engine optimization, and AdWords.
[At this point, me and Ryan chat for a few minutes about how inexpensive pay-per-click advertising is between Google and social media these days.]
Ryan: YouTube is working wonders for us right now. They made a great video for us.
Tyler: And when that gets in front of a prospect who has been to your website before (Note: aka re-targeting/re-marketing), you’re only showing your ad to people that are likely to be interested in dog training in Tulsa to begin with, right?
Ryan: Exactly.
Tyler: During the last conference that I went to, Clay mentioned that you all were in the beginning phases of franchising out the Tip Top K9 model to some people in Idaho. Can you elaborate on that a little bit, please?
Ryan: We actually have a location in Owasso that just opened this week and we’ve got a location in Twin Falls, Idaho. We’ve got another location opening in Boise, Idaho in about 3 months.
Tyler: Wow. That’s gotta be insane to see a business that you started — the uniforms, the van, everything — being used by someone in a completely different state.
Ryan: It is! Right now, we have 9 other trainers and 2 admin people, so looking back, it’s crazy to think about how at one point I was doing the whole thing by myself out of a van.
Tyler: That’s crazy…
Ryan: I know — Clay really helped us with his systems, because — while we could get to 4 or 5 people — taking us to the point of having ten or more employees, or doubling our size, helped us double our incomes.
[At this point, me and Ryan start talking about our mutual adoration for the book The E-Myth Revisited. I won’t bore you with the details of that little tangent.]
Tyler: How was working with the Thrivetime business coaching program key in bringing you all to the point of where you are now launching multiple franchise operations?
Ryan: If I never had been able to step out of the day-to-day grind, I would’ve never had time to build the systems that have let us replace ourselves (referring to he and his wife, Rachel). So, she was able to work on the management systems and call center stuff, and I was able to train the trainers and come up with systems for private lessons and everything else. We were really able to pull back on our involvement because we were able to systemize everything. We don’t have to worry about our marketing or our website. And when we have a coach who we have to stay accountable to on a weekly basis… it helps tremendously.
Tyler: Well, I’ll let you all get back to working on your business! Thanks for your time!
Ryan: Thanks!